Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Patrick Hynes, who happens to be Sen. John McCain's new-media guru, looks at the impact of YouTube on the campaign process:

"Whether Republicans are ready for it or not, the website which will have the biggest impact on a candidate’s political life is YouTube,” says David All, a Republican modern media strategist in Washington, DC. "Candidates throughout the country are no longer squaring off against their opponents' media firm, they also face their opponents' tech-savvy, modern volunteer operation which is armed with cost-effective camcorders, free video editing software, high-speed internet connections, and a gnarly laptop to make the magic happen."

YouTube isn't just impacting campaigns. Hynes notes an incident involving Starbucks and YouTube:

YouTube isn’t just for political bickering and banter. Smart corporations recognize the power of web-based video-on-demand, too. Coffee giant Starbucks found itself the subject of a YouTubing in mid-December when Oxfam America posted video of protesters demonstrating outside Starbucks locations. The protesters said they were standing up for "Ethiopian coffee farmers' rights."

Two days later Dub Hay, the head of the Starbucks Coffee Team took to YouTube to explain why Ethiopian coffee farmers make so little money. It’s a fairly esoteric answer that has more to do with trade agreements than corporate greed, but the point is, Starbucks didn’t just sit around and ignore the bad press. It responded swiftly and in kind. And, frankly, Starbucks looked more reasonable than its detractors because of it.

Starbucks' swift reaction to having been "YouTubed" is a good example for corporations and for campaigns in how to use the new media in a media relations situation.

Read the whole article here.